1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image modulation apparatus, an image modulation method, and an image modulation program.
2. Background Art
With the development of network technology, one can easily access networks from personal computers (PCs), portable terminal devices, and tablet terminal devices to view web pages on networks, for example, and purchase goods from web stores and through net auctions.
Typically, the images of goods such as display images taken by scanners and digital cameras have a different appearance from actual goods themselves, and one may feel some oddness when comparing the actual goods with their display images. Therefore, color-matching technologies to reproduce the actual goods as faithfully as possible via the web have been developed based on the properties of the input devices and display devices.
For example, JP-2004-32399-A discloses an image color reproduction system to faithfully reproduce colors of images at a client apparatus (i.e., a distribution destination apparatus) transmitted via a network using a server (i.e., a distribution originating apparatus). In this system, the server provides color chart data to the client apparatus, a color chart displayed at the client apparatus is captured by a digital camera, and then color information of the original color chart data and the color chart data captured by the digital camera are transmitted to the server together with the device properties of the digital camera. The properties of a display device can then be determined based on such data, and the image is corrected based on the device properties.
However, in such an image color reproduction system, the server is required to convert images based on the device properties of the client display devices and then transmit the converted image data, which puts a heavy burden on the server.
In an image conversion system having a different configuration from that of the above-described system, the server transmits data of images converted according to the properties of the input device, and the client converts the image data according to the properties of the display device. However, such an arrangement requires each client to have its own image conversion system.